Nico Fever, Fulmer Too?

[GUNTERSVOL]

2001 says otherwise. he was a good ceo coach no doubt - not an offensive savant. a lot of coaches are like that.

with that, he sucked royally as an ad.

How many of CPF’s coaches still remain? Anybody have that handy? Kelly is gone, the soccer coach bailed, track? Swimming?

 

[OrangeTsar]

2001 says otherwise. he was a good ceo coach no doubt - not an offensive savant. a lot of coaches are like that.

with that, he sucked royally as an ad.

The game changed on him. It is hard for someone who has been very successful doing something to change what they are doing even as the world changes around them. I think Saban saw that he couldn’t adapt to the new NIL environment and was wise to get out while near the top. Fulmer held on a few seasons too long.

 

[pricevol5]

But does he work like heck?

 

[BernardKingGOAT]

He's responsible for the "good ole days" i say he's done alot for the university. Could have he done some things differently? Sure! But a coaching record of 152-52 speaks for itself.

Yes, he did great work as a football coach for the University. He was awarded for it too, and then some. Actually overcompensated. Unfortunately his narcissism won't allow him to fade away. If he actually did the right thing, he would decline such interviews.

 

[vol94]

He was a great recruiter, an ok coach, and loved the University. A true VFL that should have been replaced as HC earlier than he was, and never allowed to be AD.

I respect him and thank him for his Championships and the run in the 90’s, but the cold light of hindsight proves he excelled against lesser competition, benefitted from a weaker SEC, and was reliant on great talent and a stellar supporting cast. When any of those variables changed, his record suffered. As the TV money started to pour in and the SEC coaching arms race heated up, the game moved beyond him.

I don’t like to admit it as I am grateful for the natty he brought my alma mater. But I agree with your comments. It’s a shame we never beat FL with Manning and win a title. Also, the 2001 season could’ve been special but a horrible loss to LSU drained our hopes.

 

['Boro-vol]

Interesting take. I suppose that makes us re-evaluate Spurrier, who coached in the same era, and could arguably have the same said about him.

Or, Urban Meyer, who coached when Tn and Uga were not at the top of their game and Saban hadn’t yet become Saban.

I prefer think championship coaches always have great talent whose competition is lesser than they. Very few championship teams do it with an unmarried record, does that make the less? I don’t think so.

Very few coaches had the sustained excellence Fulmer had at Tn. The manner in which his departure was handled, and the ineptitude of those who followed him led to decades of irrelevance, which is evidence of how well Fulmer performed while here.

I am glad we sent to be on a trajectory of future sustained excellence that may rival the 90’s, rather than having to reflect on our glory days past.

No…Spurrier was the class of the field in a league filled with the likes of Mike Dubose, Jim Donnan, Brad Scott, and Gerry DiNardo. And Fulmers record against Spurrier bears it out, making my point about Fulmer. Urban Meyer coached circles around the Coach Fulmer as well.

My entire point was that his sustained success, a decade or so, fades somewhat when you take a deep dive into his conference opponents during that period. It really fades when you look at his abysmal record against top-25 opponents after ‘98. The drop off is precipitous…a result of better coaching talent in the conference, and the loss of key coaches on his staff. That last point makes one wonder on whose shoulders the coaching talent actually resided. Fulmer was a tremendous, relentless recruiter. When he had the best talent he could be competitive with anyone. When that dropped off his coaching was exposed as the game moved on.

 

[VolFreakJosh]

Had Fulmer stayed longer as the HC, eventually he would gone the same path as Les Miles.

Both were good HC’s at the time but the game passed them by years ago.

Fulmer was fired at the right time imo.

 

[chuck0303]

He was a great recruiter, an ok coach, and loved the University. A true VFL that should have been replaced as HC earlier than he was, and never allowed to be AD.

I respect him and thank him for his Championships and the run in the 90’s, but the cold light of hindsight proves he excelled against lesser competition, benefitted from a weaker SEC, and was reliant on great talent and a stellar supporting cast. When any of those variables changed, his record suffered. As the TV money started to pour in and the SEC coaching arms race heated up, the game moved beyond him.

And he became full of himself. His exaggerated ego got the best of him and he got lazy, plain & simple. He has no one to blame but himself. The breaks have to go your way sometimes but there's too much credit given to him on the championship. we wouldn't have even competed for the championship without Clint Sternoer's timely fumble. So yes it was a championship but I give more credit to the players and other coaches than to Fulmer. He just won't go away into the sunset. Sad.

 

[chuck0303]

Had Fulmer stayed longer as the HC, eventually he would gone the same path as Les Miles.

Both were good HC’s at the time but the game passed them by years ago.

Fulmer was fired at the right time imo.

Actually he should have been fired 2 seasons before but they let him ride until they couldn't take the heat anymore.

 

[chuck0303]

Yes, he did great work as a football coach for the University. He was awarded for it too, and then some. Actually overcompensated. Unfortunately his narcissism won't allow him to fade away. If he actually did the right thing, he would decline such interviews.

Spot on. His ego won't let him quit seeking the limelight from anyone that will listen.

 

[livefaith]

Interesting take. I suppose that makes us re-evaluate Spurrier, who coached in the same era, and could arguably have the same said about him.

Or, Urban Meyer, who coached when Tn and Uga were not at the top of their game and Saban hadn’t yet become Saban.

I prefer think championship coaches always have great talent whose competition is lesser than they. Very few championship teams do it with an unmarried record, does that make the less? I don’t think so.

Very few coaches had the sustained excellence Fulmer had at Tn. The manner in which his departure was handled, and the ineptitude of those who followed him led to decades of irrelevance, which is evidence of how well Fulmer performed while here.

I am glad we sent to be on a trajectory of future sustained excellence that may rival the 90’s, rather than having to reflect on our glory days past.

Yeah, it always cracks me up to think @ how people perceived that TN had weak competition in the 90s. LOL, that's what ALWAYS is the case when you are the dominant team. Everybody thinks you don't play quality competition, because none of the competition is your quality. Isn't that the point?

It's kind of like how for the last 5 years everyone is screaming about how weak Georgia's schedule is. Well, yeah, when you're head & shoulders more talented than every team you're coming up against, it's amazing how easy that schedule looks.

 

[livefaith]

I don’t like to admit it as I am grateful for the natty he brought my alma mater. But I agree with your comments. It’s a shame we never beat FL with Manning and win a title. Also, the 2001 season could’ve been special but a horrible loss to LSU drained our hopes.

That LSU loss was the most devastating defeat that I have ever seen in my 60 years of life as a UT fan. Inexplicable. And to hear years later the LSU coaching staff recalling that they couldn't believe Tennessee wasn't adjusting to their new quarterback, so they just kept running the same things over and over and it kept working. It blows my mind.

 

[Ritzwatch]

No…Spurrier was the class of the field in a league filled with the likes of Mike Dubose, Jim Donnan, Brad Scott, and Gerry DiNardo. And Fulmers record against Spurrier bears it out, making my point about Fulmer. Urban Meyer coached circles around the Coach Fulmer as well.

My entire point was that his sustained success, a decade or so, fades somewhat when you take a deep dive into his conference opponents during that period. It really fades when you look at his abysmal record against top-25 opponents after ‘98. The drop off is precipitous…a result of better coaching talent in the conference, and the loss of key coaches on his staff. That last point makes one wonder on whose shoulders the coaching talent actually resided. Fulmer was a tremendous, relentless recruiter. When he had the best talent he could be competitive with anyone. When that dropped off his coaching was exposed as the game moved on.

So Fulmer’s wins in the 90’s were against mediocre coaches with less talented teams while Spurrier’s wins against those same teams and coaches made him “class of the field” - got it.

My own take has always been that I want my head coach to be the best evaluated of talent -for players and assistant coaches - as that coach can be, and then to be a motivator and culture-setter. Head coaches, like CEOs, don’t have as much opportunity to get down and dirty on the details as the position coaches do.

Spurrier’s success faded as well. As do they all if they don’t leave when they are on top. It is how it goes…

 

[#1fulmerite]

Fulmer is the greatest UT coach of our lifetime!

Had we just given him a sabbatical, he would have come back fresh and led us back to the 90’s!

 

[vol94]

That LSU loss was the most devastating defeat that I have ever seen in my 60 years of life as a UT fan. Inexplicable. And to hear years later the LSU coaching staff recalling that they couldn't believe Tennessee wasn't adjusting to their new quarterback, so they just kept running the same things over and over and it kept working. It blows my mind.

I was at the game with my wife anticipating a trip to the Rose Bowl. We knocked their QB and RB out of the game before halftime. But LSU ran the QB draw over and over. We couldn’t move the ball and I think we turned it over. It was the biggest choke job and Saban out coached Fulmer with backups at QB and RB.

We were close in 2022 and the bed vs Jr.- sickening. Two worst losses in TN history.

 

[Jaxon_Vol2017]

Not a Fulmer fan.

you're not a fan of the last coach that won us a championship? Weird flex

 

[MurphyVol]

So Fulmer’s wins in the 90’s were against mediocre coaches with less talented teams while Spurrier’s wins against those same teams and coaches made him “class of the field” - got it.

My own take has always been that I want my head coach to be the best evaluated of talent -for players and assistant coaches - as that coach can be, and then to be a motivator and culture-setter. Head coaches, like CEOs, don’t have as much opportunity to get down and dirty on the details as the position coaches do.

Spurrier’s success faded as well. As do they all if they don’t leave when they are on top. It is how it goes…

I've always thought Vol fans vastly overrated Spurrier simply because he had our number. He was in Phil's head, his aside from that he was a solid coach with the same number of NCs as Phil, Les Miles, Ed O and Gene Chizik (despite being in an amazingly talent rich state) and zero undefeated seasons.

The guy that had Steve's number was Bobby Bowden

 

[OllVol]

"KEEP MY QUARTERBACK'S NAME OUT YO MOUTH!"

 

[Volador]

What I find interesting about Fulmer praising Nico, is that since '98, I do not recall CPF going on record about any other UT QB in the past 20+ years. Whether you like Fulmer or not, he has more knowledge of UT football than all the brilliant and scientific minds combined here on Vol Nation. I find comfort in his wisdom that he is sharing with us and Phil, IMO, has never been one to be a grandstander.

“This young guy now, Nico is for real,” Fulmer said. “He is for real. I’ve been around a lot of good ones but this guy is really really special. We just have to keep him healthy and keep the younger ones coming too but if he stays healthy it could be a very exciting offensive football team which leads to a really exciting football team.”

 

[EZE]

Not a Fulmer fan.

Well, you should be a fan of Fulmer the coach. Those were some good years.

 

[agent|orange]

2001 says otherwise. he was a good ceo coach no doubt - not an offensive savant. a lot of coaches are like that.

with that, he sucked royally as an ad.

Lets be honest here. He was 2 years off a National Championship and was 17-7 in those 2 years where Tennessee should have been poised to take over the SEC.

2001 was a string of not-so-convincing wins where we simply out-talented the teams we were playing and we still lost to 8-4 Georgia that year as well as bombing out of a chance in the National Champ by losing by 11 to LSU. That team was possibly Fulmer's most talented with 3 1st Rounders. 1999,2000,2001 were years that made it clear that Fulmer was going to lose to better coaches (Richt, Saban, whoever was at Florida) and even struggle against peer-level guys.

Had Cutcliffe stayed, it would have been a different story. We had National Title level defenses but our offenses under Sanders were bad.

 

[agent|orange]

I'll follow up by saying when people generally think of "the good days" they're usually thinking of "the Cutcliffe days" which were 1993-1998.

Fulmer's record with Cutcliffe (8 years): 85-19-1
Fulmer's record without Cutcliffe (8 years): 66-33

 

[onevol74]

Fulmer is the greatest UT coach of our lifetime!

Had we just given him a sabbatical, he would have come back fresh and led us back to the 90’s!

Fairytales can come true, it could happen for you……

 

[JohnWardForever]

Yea, I've got a couple Bama friends that whenever they start talking $hit about Fulmer, I mention his 11-5 record against the tree-killers, tea-baggers and they shut the hell up........

Absolutely should have been 12-4 If our guy doesn't fumble the damn ball going in for the winning score AT Tuscaloosa. 2005.

 

[JohnWardForever]

Cutcliffe deserves some of that credit too, especially as far as Peyton is concerned. But yeah, those were indeed Halcyon days.

Cut got lucky being the QB guru to 2 of the best ever, Peyton & Eli.